Physicians and other health care providers frequently use catheters to treat patients. The known catheters include a tube which is inserted into the human body. Certain catheters are inserted into through the patient's nose or mouth for treating the gastrointestinal tract. These catheters, sometimes referred to as enteral catheters, typically include feeding tubes. The feeding tube lies in the stomach or intestines, and a feeding bag delivers liquid nutrient, liquid medicine or a combination of the two to the patient.
Other types of catheters are inserted into the patient's veins or arteries for treating the cardiovascular system. These intravascular catheters include, among others, the central venous catheter, peripheral venous catheter and the peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC). These catheters include a relatively small tube that passes through the patient's veins or arteries. Depending on the application, the health care providers can use these intravascular catheters to remove blood vessel blockages, place inserts into blood vessels and to provide patients with injections of medications, drugs, fluids, nutrients, or blood products over a period of time, sometimes several weeks or more.
When using these known enteral and intravascular catheters, it is important to place the end of the catheter at the proper location within the human body. Erroneous placement of the catheter tip may injure or harm the patient. For example, if the health care provider erroneously places an enteral catheter into the patient's lungs, liquid may be introduced into the lungs with harmful results. If the health care provider erroneously places an intravascular catheter into the wrong blood vessel of the cardiovascular system, the patient may experience infection, injury or a harmful blockage.
In some cases, health care providers use X-ray machines to gather information about the location of the catheters within the body. There are several of disadvantages with using X-ray machines. For example, these machines are relatively large and heavy, consume a relatively large amount of energy and expose the patient to a relatively high degree of X-ray radiation. Also, these machines are typically not readily accessible for use because, due to their size, they are usually installed in a special X-ray room. This room can be relatively far away from the patient's room. Therefore, health care providers can find it inconvenient to use these machines for their catheter procedures. Furthermore, it can be inconvenient to transport these machines to a patient's home for home care catheter procedures.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome or otherwise lessen the effects of such disadvantages.